V-Play 2.8.4 is out now as a free update for all V-Play users. A highlight of this update is the addition of the Google Cloud Messaging Plugin to V-Play Plugins.

The Google Cloud Messaging Plugin is another alternative to the retiring Parse service and is available with the V-Play Indie and Enterprise Licenses. Get the latest version of V-Play and you can also enjoy improvements to V-Play Apps and the V-Play Game Engine.

If you’re not an existing V-Play user and you’d like to make cross-platform apps and games, you can download the SDK for free.

Google Cloud Messaging

Google Cloud Messaging is a service for sending push notifications and has emerged as an alternative to the soon-to-be discontinued Parse service. With the GoogleCloudMessaging item, V-Play Indie and Enterprise License holders will be able to send push notifications to individuals and targeted groups of users.

Push notifications are a great way to keep your users engaged and inform them of changes to your app or game. Push notifications are triggered from server-side logic so Google Cloud Messaging includes a push backend for delivering notifications from a custom web service.

These notifications are best suited for apps where you need to inform users about externally triggered status updates. This can include sports live ticker apps, social messaging apps or any app that delivers real-time info.

Note: An upcoming blog post will detail the future of using push notifications, such as Parse, OneSignal, Amazon SNS and Firebase, with V-Play and Qt!

Game Engine Improvements

The major change to the V-Play Game Engine with this update is a number of improvements to the V-Play Game Network’s default styling. The V-Play Game Network has gotten a makeover which includes an updated look for buttons and makes the header clickable for back navigation.

This V-Play update also includes a fix on some Android devices when displaying rounded user images in VPlayGameNetworkView.

V-Play Apps Improvements

When working with V-Play Apps, you now have the ability to disable the platform emulation feature. You can disable the debug menu bar with the App::menuBarVPlayEnabled property.

The debug menu bar allows you to view your app at different screen resolutions and gives a preview on how it will appear on iOS or Android devices. By default, the menu bar is only enabled for publishing builds on desktop platforms.

Plugin Fixes

V-Play 2.8.4 includes a fix for the Notification plugin that can be used to send local push notifications. This update fixes a possible crash when the NotificationManager item is not used from within the root item of a project.

How to Update

Test out these new features by following these steps

Open the V-Play SDK Maintenance Tool in your V-Play SDK directory. Choose “Update components” and finish the update process to get V-Play 2.8.4 as described in the V-Play Update Guide

If you haven’t installed V-Play yet, you can do so now with the latest installer from here.

The V-Play Sample Launcher allows you to quickly test and run all the open-source examples and demo apps & games that come with the V-Play SDK, from a single desktop application.

After installing V-Play, you can start the V-Play Sample Launcher from the application shortcut in your V-Play SDK directory.Now you can explore all of the new features included in V-Play 2.8.4!

For a complete list of the changes to V-Play with this update, please check out our change log!